News

Although Halloween is embraced by all ages these days, it was mostly a children’s holiday not all that long ago. What is essentially now a multi-month event was a single day of fun back then. The real world has changed in this regard, but some things stay the same in TV anthologies; kids are still the focal point in stories about Halloween.

In episodic anthologies rooted in horror, Halloween stories occasionally happen but are not guaranteed or even timely. Horror series, after all, do not rely on Halloween in order to be horror. The chances are, though, if an episode is all about Halloween, the protagonists are probably young.

Here are five must-watch tales of kid-friendly Halloween horror from TV anthologies.

Tales from the Darkside (1983-1988)

Trick or Treat

Interest in a Creepshow TV series back in the ‘80s led to the creation of Tales from the Darkside. Before...

Halloween is a night of fanciful terrors, its macabre machinations ticking, turning, clicking and clacking inside of its youthful acolytes’ imaginations as it ushers in the one day a year where life, death and everything in between is allowed to stalk the moonlit streets. There are a multitude of October tales that attempt to capture the holiday’s uncanny spirit, but few stories manage to embody the enigmatical ghostliness of Halloween’s mystifying soul more completely than Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree (1993).

Initially pitched as an animated film in the late 1960s, Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree was first published as a novel in 1973. It would take another 20 years to see Bradbury’s story realized on screen due in large part to the friendship, dedication and artistic prowess of writer and producer David Kirschner. A true disciple of October 31st’s many unearthly goings on, Kirschner’s belief...

“Night and day. Summer and winter, boys. Seedtime and harvest. Life and death. That’s what Halloween is, all rolled up in one.”

Halloween is dominated by iconography both macabre and delightful. Terrifying and pleasant. Freeing and disguised. It’s a night that’s been assigned to the fantasies of youth and yet remains steeped in the realities of the very old. Where dark and ancient tradition mingle with the lightness of modernity and treats are exchanged for the chants of possible tricks which invite more devilish favors than sweets. At its core— at the core of all such wicked celebrations— is death. What it means. Why those in this existence are so fascinated, incensed, intoxicated and repulsed by its shadow and how it is people reconcile death’s existentially labyrinthian impact on their lives.

Halloween is the day that we face that chilling finality. Commune with it. Drape our world in its trappings.

On October 26, 1997, Tower of Terror aired as ABC’s The Wonderful World of Disney feature presentation, initiating a trend that would go on to shift the paradigm that had long existed between Disney’s immersive theme park attractions and their successful movie slate. The line between rides and movies was blurring and soon the path that carried the silver screen to the realm of reality would no longer be one-way.

Twenty six years later, the studio is on the cusp of their twelfth ride adaptation and their second big screen attempt at a blockbuster Haunted Mansion movie. Far removed from the made-for-tv Steve Guttenberg starring spook fest that served as a gateway horror flick to so many young and impressionable minds, these multimedia ticket drivers have left behind low budget simplicity in lieu of multi-million dollar CGI driven set pieces and A-list casts. Still, with its on-ride filming sites, colorful...

Whether it's The Halloween Tree or The October Country or Something Wicked This Way Comes, autumn is a wonderful time to read (or reread) Ray Bradbury's classic works. It's an especially perfect time of year, then, for Fantagraphics to publish Home to Stay!: The Complete Ray Bradbury EC Stories (featuring 28 Bradbury stories adapted by EC Comics in the 1950s), and we've been provided with "The Handler" story for Daily Dead readers to enjoy in its entirety ahead of the collection's October 18th publication!

Based on Bradbury's short story of the same name that was published in the 1947 collection Dark Carnival, "The Handler" (with artwork by Graham Ingels and a script by Al Feldstein) can be read in its entirety below!

We also have the official press release with additional details, and to learn more about Home to Stay!: The Complete Ray Bradbury EC Stories, visit:

https://www.

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "The Halloween Tree"

Where You Can Stream It: Tubi TV

The Pitch: On Halloween night, a group of kids dress up and head out to meet their friend Pipkin before trick or treating. But Pip doesn't show up, and the ambulance at his house makes it look like he may be on the verge of a tragic and sudden death. But the kids soon spot an apparition of their pal, and when they chase...

The post The Daily Stream: The Halloween Tree is a Perfect Gateway into the World of Ray Bradbury appeared first on /Film.

Warner Bros. has hired a writer to tackle the script for The Halloween Tree, a movie adaptation of science fiction and fantasy writer Ray Bradbury‘s classic 1972 novel. Will Dunn, who went through 20th Century Fox’s writing program and once had a screenplay on the Blacklist, will write the screenplay. If you’re a fan of the […]

The post ‘The Halloween Tree’ Movie in the Works at Warner Bros., Based on Ray Bradbury’s Excellent Novel appeared first on /Film.

Exclusive: We have learned that Will Dunn has been tapped by Warner Bros to adapt Ray Bradbury’s 1972 fantasy novel The Halloween Tree.

Los Angeles- and London-based management and production company 42 are producing the feature film adaptation with Charlie Morrison overseeing the project.

Dunn was a member of 20th Century Fox’s Feature Writer Program. His spec feature The Fisherman was featured on the Black List, and he has worked on features for Disney, Sony, eOne and Warner Bros.

The Halloween Tree follows Tom and his schoolmates who begin to investigate the strange happenings in their small town on Halloween night. Their friend Pip is abducted by a powerful demon from the Land of the Dead. With the help of an unlikely ally, a mysterious figure named Moundshroud, Tom and his pals must journey into the Land of the Dead to save their friend.

In the book, the boys with...

Hocus Pocus

Despite being rated PG, “Hocus Pocus” is a classic, iconic Halloween movie, and its cult status has only gained in the 20 years since its release.

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Is it a Halloween movie? A Christmas movie? Don’t know, but the good thing about this Tim Burton classic is that it can be relied upon all throughout the holiday season.

Ghostbusters (2016)

This remake of the 1980s classic has a phenomenal comedic cast of funny ladies, and luckily, this is one modern reboot that didn’t go the “dark and grounded” route, making it a fun adventure, even for kids born with a smart phone in their hands.

Casper

A family-friendly coming of age tale and a fun, spooky adventure all in one, Christina Ricci

Harry Potter

Does Halloween even exist in the world of Hogwarts? No matter, because this fantasy epic has spawned millions of costumed fans.

Halloween is a time when regular folk allow themselves to see the world as us horror lovers do – weird and wonderful, sinister mischief with tongue in cheek under (and over) tones. They watch that scary movie they’ve been meaning to get to for the past year, string up skeletons, and parade around at office parties in the latest ironic costumes (expect tons of Trumps and Weiners this year). But for the fearful faithful, this is our workaday; we watch the films daily, display our rooms with terror trinkets, and dress up as our favourite icons at constant conventions around the globe. So what separates the actual day of Halloween from our normal routine? TV viewing, of course.

‘Tis the season when every station trots out horror programming, sometimes for weeks on end leading up to and including the big night. A lot of this is for Johnny and Jane...

“It was a small town by a small river and a small lake in a small northern part of a Midwest state.” The opening line of Ray Bradbury’s 1972 fantasy novel The Halloween Tree reads like the beginning of a good horror movie, and the film adaptation’s intro does little to quell this terrifying tone. With ominous music, a jack-o’-lantern title card, and Bradbury’s narration, the 1993 feature-length animated television movie produced by Hanna-Barbera seemingly set the stage for something sinister. And that’s how I remember my childhood viewing of this film, as one filled with my favorite holiday tropes. Upon revisiting it, I recognize the adaptation is much more faithful to Bradbury’s work than my younger self realized. That is to say, this is an extremely educational look at Halloween and how its tropes came to be, from witches to mummies and lots ...

Samhain approaches and the veil between worlds grows thin, which means that it’s time for another week of horrors from your pals here at The A.V. Club. (We wanted to do a Wicker Man-style pagan sacrifice, but corporate said no.) We’re kicking things off today with a guide to Halloween entertainment that won’t give your kids nightmares for weeks, along with a reading list of six suspenseful mysteries written by women as recommended by thriller author Karin Slaughter. Her bloodthirsty ancestors must be proud.

As for the rest of the week, yours truly will be holding forth on the resurgent witchcraft trend in pop culture, our film editor A.A. Dowd will be running you through the Paranormal Activity series, and Gwen Ihnat will examine the ubiquity of monsters in kids’ media. We’ve also got writers reminiscing on The Halloween Tree, diving deep into...

Warner Archive Collection continues its commitment to fulfilling the wishes of animation fans everywhere with the first-ever Blu-ray™ release of Justice League Unlimited: The Complete Series. The enthralling anthology will be distributed in full 16×9 widescreen presentation starting Tuesday, November 10, 2015 via WBshop.com and popular online retailers.

As the follow-up to the popular Justice League animated series, Justice League Unlimited ran from 2004-2006 and featured a huge canon of characters from the DC Comics library. After fighting off an alien invasion in the previous two-season Justice League series, our heroes find their ranks diminished and – with new dangers arising at an ever-increasing pace – the remaining crime fighters realize that protecting the entire world is going to take more technology and more manpower. A lot more. The original seven Justice Leaguers – Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, J’onn J’onzz, Green Lantern and Hawkgirl – are now joined by an unlimited selection of allies including Green Arrow,...

If you’ve craved more All Hallows’ Eve adventures since the end credits rolled in Michael Dougherty's 2007 holiday horror anthology, then you're in for a big Halloween treat from Legendary Comics via their new graphic novel, Trick 'r Treat: Days of the Dead.

Set around October 31st throughout the centuries, Days of the Dead features four macabre tales in which the tricks can be treacherous, but the treats are sweeter than any king-sized candy bar. The stories are collectively penned by Dougherty, Todd Casey, Zach Shields, and Marc Andreyko, and they leave a mark almost as indelible as the tales told onscreen in the Trick 'r Treat film—offering a good number of initial scares and leaving plenty of frightful food for thought to dig into after the last page is turned.

Conjured on a front step in a small town by a grandpa trying to get his granddaughter into the Halloween spirit,...

Visit the Dread Central offices, and you’ll find quite a bit of artwork by illustrator Gris Grimly. Now he’s added his special ghoulish touch to a classic autumn tale, Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree, which was just re-released in early… Continue Reading →

The post Gris Grimly-Illustrated Edition of Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree Now Available appeared first on Dread Central.

The Halloween Tree by Glen Brogan

Halloween is coming, and it’s time to start your yearly rituals of wearing ugly pumpkin sweaters, making apple cider, killing a drifter, and watching your favorite Halloween movies. For most people, that means either a bunch of horror films or It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. For other people who liked niche stuff as kids, that means The Halloween Tree. For other, much weirder people, that means Mad Monster Party. For those niche-loving weirdos, The Strange Kids Club is offering posters that pay tribute to the classic Halloween films.

The first, by Glen Brogan, whom we’ve featured before, pays tribute to The Halloween Tree, a TV movie based on a Ray Bradbury novel that first aired in 1993. According to IMDb, the movie is about “four children [who] learn the origins of Halloween customs while trying to save the life of their friend.

Halloween is right around the corner and what better way to keep your kids quiet than by sitting them in front of the television and making them watch something terrifying. If traumatising your kids isn’t for you (or more likely you don’t want to pay the therapy costs when they’re older) then there’s plenty of spooktacular movies out there that are perfect for your little devils this month.

It’s safe to say that today’s kids may not be as tough as we were when we were that age so why not drag out some of your all time favourites and see how well your little Asbo in training holds up against the things that went bump in the night when we were small. And if that’s too much for the bed wetter in your home then we’re sure you’ll find something...

Even in a world populated with the likes of I Spit On Your Grave and Cannibal Holocaust, there may be nothing more profoundly unsettling than animated programs ostensibly produced for children. Often featuring adults taking children off into fantastic, unsupervised worlds, their odd colors and textures reach a place of terrifying power that gore and murder can’t hope to touch. Though The Halloween Tree isn’t the worst of them, it hints strongly at that power, which may not be fully appreciated until you are an adult. Drenched in atmosphere, Tree fits the season perfectly, though it may reach a little further than you’d like it to.

Read more...

When a literary giant dies, there’s a rush to rediscover the author’s works, delighting in old favorites or finally reading a work you have somehow missed. The passing of Ray Bradbury has prompted such a journey in print and in other media. Warner Archive, to their credit, has just released The Halloween Tree, the 1993 animated adaptation of his 1972 fantasy.

The 90-minute feature was adapted by Bradbury and directed by Mario Piluso, featuring the voices of Leonard Nimoy, Annie Barker, Darleen Carr, Lindsay Crouse, Alex Greenwald, and Bradbury himself as the narrator.

A small group of four children are out trick-or-treating one Halloween when one of them, Pip, goes missing. Checking his house, they learn he has been rushed off for an emergency appendectomy. Instead of making their rounds without him, they determine to visit him instead at the hospital. Instead, they wander off their intended path and get lost.

The science fiction world suffered a great loss with the death of the legendary Ray Bradbury, who departed this universe on June 5th 2012 at the age of 91. An incredible influence on the genre during the forties and fifties, Bradbury re-defined 20th Century American fiction with a prolific output that tackled a wide variety of subjects. But it was science fiction that he will be best remembered for. Most of his short stories and novels depicted a bleak utopian future ruled by media technology. This was made all the more unique by the fact that Bradbury never drove a car. His most famous works are The Illustrated Man, Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles.

The family tree itself had one interesting skeleton in the cupboard. Bradbury’s ancestor was Mary Bradbury, who was tried as a witch during the infamous Salem Witch Trials of 1692. She was married to Massachusetts born Captain Thomas Bradbury.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg has joined the tributes to sci-fi author Ray Bradbury, who died on Monday (June 5) at the age of 91.

Spielberg said in a statement issued today: "He was my muse for the better part of my sci-fi career. He lives on through his legion of fans. In the world of science fiction and fantasy and imagination he is immortal."

In 2003, Bradbury said Spielberg's 1977 release Close Encounters of the Third Kind was "the best film of its kind ever made." He later visited the director, who told him the movie had been inspired by 1953 sci-fi classic It Came From Outer Space, which was adapted from a Bradbury story.

Among other tributes, Stephen King said: "The sound I hear today is the thunder of a giant's footsteps fading away. But the novels and stories remain, in all their resonance and strange beauty."

Writer Mark Gatiss described Bradbury as "a dazzling,...

Ray Bradbury -- the science fiction-fantasy writer behind films such as Fahrenheit 451, Moby Dick and TV shows The Twilight Zone and The Ray Bradbury Theater -- died Tuesday night. He was 91.

Bradbury's daughter Alexandra confirmed her father's death on Wednesday, but did not provide additional details. Although the sci-fi master had to slow down in recent years due to a stroke and used a wheelchair, Bradbury remained active into his 90s, turning out new novels, plays, screenplays and a volume of poetry. He was said to have written every day in the basement office of his home in the Cheviot Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles

In addition to his explosive novel Fahrenheit 451 -- about a future American society in which books are outlawed -- Bradbury also scripted John Huston's 1956 film version of Moby Dick and wrote for The Twilight Zone and other television programs, including The Ray Bradbury Theater, which adapted...

ReelzChannel Celebrity Rundown

The Hunger Games' Gale Hawthorne might be caught in a love triangle, but Liam Hemsworth doesn't seem to have trouble getting the girl he wants. The actor is engaged to singer/actress/teen sensation Miley Cyrus says People. Hemsworth proposed to Cyrus on May 31st with a 3.5-carat Neil Lane diamond. The two met in 2009 when they costarred in The Last Song. Nineteen-year-old Cyrus has posted several blissed out, lovey-dovey tweets since the engagement, including "heaven is a place on earth" and "I love you more today than yesterday but I love you less today than I will tomorrow...."

***

After a six month separation, Debra Messing filed for divorce from husband David Zelman. The actress filed her court documents on Tuesday and reportedly is asking for joint custody of their 8-year-old son, as well as child and spousal support. The two were married in September of...

Extremely sad news this morning as io9 has confirmed this morning that Ray Bradbury has passed away in Los Angeles.

The author was 91.

Bradbury was born in 1920 in Illinois.  He went on to pen many classics including Something Wicked This Way Comes, Farenheit 451, The Halloween Tree, The Martian Chronicles and countless short story collections.  His tale, The Fog Horn, was adapted into the creature feature The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.  He also inspired The Ray Bradbury Theater, a series based on his works which ran on HBO for two seasons.

Needless to say, the man was a machine, making it a point to write every day, as he has said in past interviews.

I had a chance to meet Mr. Bradbury on a few occasions and he was incredibly kind and always happy to speak to his fans.  He will definitely be missed.

Read more...

 

Ray Bradbury is no stranger to having his literary works adapted to the big screen. Films like Something Wicked This Way Comes, It Came From Outer Space, A Sound of Thunder, and Farenheit 451 are all based on his writings, and now MGM has put another of his projects on the fast track toward production. Deadline reports that the studio has acquired screen rights to From The Dust Returned, a series of short stories about a young boy named Timothy who is adopted by a family of ghosts.

Seems like a pretty common sense adaptation in today's marketplace, especially considering all of the similar projects out there from Beetlejuice to the upcoming Hotel Transylvania. Timothy tells the short stories to his grandmother (who happens to be a mummy) at a family reunion that happens every year on Halloween.

Mom and dad are loving vampires; teen sister Cecy is immobilized and bed-ridden,...

Ray Bradbury + Leonard Nimoy x Halloween = Win!

The Halloween Tree is a 1993 feature-length made-for-tv cartoon movie based on the 1972 fantasy novel of the same name by Ray Bradbury.

The story centers on a group of children all dressed up and excited for a night of trick-or-treating. When one of their friends, Pip, goes missing, the gang sets out to look for him, thinking the boy is just playing a joke on them. On their quest to find Pip, they end up going through a forest and into a mansion where they met Mr. Moundshroud (Star Trek's Leonard Nimoy). Moundshroud is concerned after learning that the children don't know the history behind the costumes they've picked to wear for Halloween, but eventually the kids go back in time to various eras and countries to learn the origins of Halloween and also save Pip.

The entire cartoon is up on YouTube in seven parts,...

Ray Bradbury is often referred to as the world'd greatest living science fiction writer, but one could argue he's also the world's greatest living horror writer, having penned classics like The October Country, Something Wicked This Way Comes, and The Halloween Tree, as well as the countless eerie tales that fill short-story collections like The Illustrated Man, The Golden Apples of the Sun, and The Martian Chronicles. So horror fans are more than welcome to join in the festivities as Bradbury celebrates his ninetieth (!) birthday this week. The venerable scribe reached this milestone on Sunday, August 22nd, marking the beginning of what the Los Angeles City Council has officially...

Horror fans love this time of the year. For those of us not living in La, there's the chill in the air, the colorful leaves, pumpkins everywhere, dead cornfields to explore … if you dare. So, in honor of Our official holiday, I have come up with a list of books and some movies every horror fan should at least take a look at, if not outright add to your book or DVD library.

Without further ado (and in no particular order):

Creepy Places to Visit:

Creepy Crawls: A Horror Fiend’s Travel Guide by Leon Marcelo, Santa Monica Press, 380 pages

I Love this book!! Leon Marcelo travels the world, literally, to find places of horror both real and fictional. Rome to visit the Dario Argento Profondo Rosso Shop then to George Romero’s Pennsylvania and H.P. Lovecraft’s New England. Marcelo also covers Stephen King country, Poe’s Baltimore,...